“Escape rooms” are all the rage right now, where players get locked into a decorated room or area, and need to solve clues and puzzles in order to break out within a set time limit, usually about an hour. As the time ticks down, the pressure is on to work with others in figuring out how to get free,a relevant theme as the eight-day Passover holiday approaches.

To that end, more 100 Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries worldwide are launching the “Pesach Escape Room: The FreedoMan Files,” a 45-minute “Exodus experience” designed for children.

A project of CKids Club International, the program explores themes of Jewish identity, freedom and pride, providing children with a whole new understanding of Passover, which starts this year on the night of Monday, April 10, and lasts through the night of Tuesday, April 18. Participants will travel back in time 3,500 years to a land of Pharaohs, sorcerers, slaves and miracles, incorporating teamwork and creative thinking to locate secret inscriptions, decode ancient messages and unlock hidden doors to finally break free.

First come the clues, then the clock starts ticking . . . (Photo: CKids)

The challenge includes one of the 12 Torah passages, or pesukim, chosen by the Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory—for Jewish children to know. In the Haggadah, it says: “In every generation, one must look upon himself as if he personally had gone out of Egypt.” (Pesachim 118b)

The younger generation can experience this “sense of escape from Egypt” as part of the CKids adventure game, a project of Merkos Suite 302. With an emphasis on team-building and imaginative problem-solving, it offers thousands of kids a hands-on voyage into the past to gain deeper understanding of the future.

To join “Escape Room: The FreedoMan Files,” contact your local Chabad center. For more Passover entertainment, click here.

Participants need to solve clues and puzzles as a team to break out of the room and get free, a relevant theme as Passover approaches. (Photo: CKids)

Rabbi Levi Kotlarsky, left, and Rabbi Yossi Cadaner of Merkos Suite 302 tested the project before it took off. (Photo: CKids)

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